Thermal imaging cameras have long been used in many settings to measure temperature profiles and analyze thermal variations and differences of one or more objects in a scene. To that end, such profiles can be used in comparing the different temperatures of the objects at any given time, or conversely, can be used in comparing these temperatures or thermal variations and differences over a period of time. For example, infrared cameras are frequently used in industrial applications as part of preventative maintenance programs and for building sciences and diagnostics inspections These types of programs often typically rely on periodic inspections of the assets of a plant, facility, or structure to discover likely failures before they occur or monitor and document ongoing performance For example, in an industrial setting, plant personnel often develop survey routes in order to routinely gather temperature data on the identified equipment. As is known, similar examples exist in other applications for building sciences as well.
In an industrial setting example, after collecting a thermal baseline image for each piece of equipment along a route, a person (such as a thermographer, an inspector, a building performance professional, an electrician, a technician, etc.) can then identify changes in thermal characteristics over the course of several inspections by comparing later thermal images of the equipment with the baseline image or other prior images. Changes in thermal characteristics can in some cases indicate the imminent failure of a part, thus allowing the person to schedule maintenance or replacement prior to failure.
In a simple case, a person can visually compare thermal images captured at different times to determine changes in thermal characteristics over the time period. However, only so much information can be gleaned solely from thermal images. To aid in the analysis, whether with respect to a most recent image captured (or in comparing such image to images previously captured), infrared imaging cameras have been configured to allow operators to add notes or annotations to an image. These annotations are generally created as audio or text files, and can be subsequently saved to the image in order to provide supplementary information which is difficult to ascertain from the image alone.
However, issues have been encountered to date in adding these annotations to the image. In particular, some cameras only enable for annotations to be added at the time the thermal image is saved (with limited ability for later modification), while other cameras enable annotations to be added after the image is saved. As such, it is not uncommon to find operators of these cameras further carrying a notebook to jot down their impressions of the scene in the field. In turn, the operator waits until later to combine these impressions into a single file which can then be stored with the saved image of the scene. Unfortunately, this process is time-consuming and invites error, because what is observed and noted in the field may not be fully recalled, even with the use of such notebook. Further, the operator may not be able to remember the particular image that the annotations correspond to, inviting further potential error. However, at present, adding annotations in this fashion is one of the few ways to create some record as to what is observed in the field as it relates to a captured image.
A further difficulty faced by people in analyzing thermal images is their visual clarity, as the images are often less sharp and more complex as compared to visible-light images, for example. To aid with visual comparison of such images, some infrared imaging cameras have been designed to allow the operator to capture a visible-light image of the scene using a separate visible-light camera built into the infrared imaging camera. In some cases, such cameras allow a user to view the visible-light image side-by-side with the infrared image. In other cases, such cameras enable infrared and visible-light images to be provided in overlapping or blended relationship to each other. Such features enable the operator to have a visible-light image reference for an infrared image, thus making inspection of the infrared image somewhat easier.
However, one difficulty in using visible-light images (or even further infrared images) for complementary detail is that the images are often captured and stored separately from the initially-captured infrared image. As such, grouping such images together is left to be done with separate software once the operator has returned from the field. This again contributes delay to the process. However, even more unfortunate is that the method of grouping such images is rather antiquated, with the images typically grouped by electronic folder. This method of grouping is far from dynamic, and as such, often limits the ease and breadth of subsequent analysis.
Embodiments of the invention are provided to address the above-described limitations.